When Cora woke the next day, it was almost noon, and the other beds were empty. She'd cried herself to sleep at 4 in the morning, and her roommates had thankfully not woken her up when they went to breakfast.

Her head felt hammered, and she tried to block out the memories from the night before. For a moment she considered taking a sleeping potion and forget about the rest of the day. However, a small smile occurred when she noticed the birthday cards and presents on her night stand.

Maybe just one.

She grabbed the closest gift, a small emerald box with a dark green ribbon, and opened the attached card.

Dear Cora. Happy birthday! We're proud of the young woman you have become. Love - aunt Cissy and uncle Lucius.

The card was short, but sweet. Although, Cora wasn't surprised. Her aunt and uncle had never been the kind to throw around a bunch of loving words. When she opened the box, however, she gasped. It was a pair of gothic-looking diamond earrings. They were absolutely gorgeous and must have cost a small fortune.

What her relatives lacked in words, they definitely didn't lack in gifts.

Excited after her first birthday present, she greedily reached out for another one.

The next present, a big red box, was from Draco. Inside was a beautiful velvet cloak, with 'Cora' in swirling, golden letters on an inside pocket. Classy as always. She opened the birthday card and chuckled.

To my favorite nutter. Happy birthday! You deserve to shine, and therefore I present you with Madam Malkin's Fantasy Cloak - it has a color for every occasion. Just tap your name and think of a color. Love you lots! Draco

Eager to try it, she tapped her name and the cloak transformed into a midnight blue color. Then black. Then green. Then neon pink. And back to velvet again.

"Brilliant."

She continued through her pile of gifts. Her roommates had gotten her a blue jewelry box. It resembled the ones she had seen in muggle stores as a child. However, instead of a simple tune and a ballerina, this one had a dancing fairy inside. It glimmered and floated around, as a beautiful melody came to life. The scenery behind the fairy shifted as the melody did.

For a couple of seconds Cora marveled at the little fairy. I love magic. When the song was done, and the fairy laid down to rest, she carefully put her new earrings inside the box.

"Guard them."

After opening boxes of chocolate, more jewelry, a cashmere scarf that went perfectly with her new cloak, and several other presents, there were only two boxes left. A black one and a grey one.

Cora swallowed.

It had only been two years and a summer since she'd gone from being an orphan to having parents, and she wondered what they'd gotten her. Was it something of her liking, or something they deemed proper for her to have?

She sighed. It was too hard to tell, just by looking at the wrappings.

It was probably the latter.

Despite passionate words about her importance, her parents always seemed so preoccupied with their cause of world dominion that Cora often felt she was invisible. Or just a puppet on a string; a way to preserve the line of Slytherin. Nothing more.

After all, she still lived with the Malfoys and not her parents. Which she had done since she discovered that she was indeed the heir of Slytherin, during the spring of 4th grade. She'd met her father several times after that, but it hadn't been the loving reunion she'd always hoped for. She doubted he was even capable of feeling love at all.

Her mother, on the other hand, had embraced her like a long lost treasure, after her escape from Azkaban. Despite the reunion, the two of them still had a hard time connecting. After growing up in the muggle community, Cora didn't exactly share her mother's fanatic beliefs, and her mother had a hard time accepting that.

Cora figured her upbringing was the reason Severus Snape had ended up as her husband. To keep her in line.

With uncertain hands, she reached for the grey box and opened it.

Inside was an oval locket with a serpent, on a long silver chain. The locket contained a tiny photo of her mother with a baby on her arm. They both laughed at the camera. Bellatrix Lestrange looked almost normal.

The picture brought tears to Cora's eyes. Both for the loving gesture from her mother, but also for the grief of growing up without her.

"Oh mother," she said, throat thickening as she spoke.

How different everything might've been if her mother had fled the country with her, instead of going after the Longbottoms and then gotten herself arrested.

The thought made the serpent in her stomach curl into a tight ball.

Cora snapped the locket shut and put it back in the grey box, placing the lid on top. No use in wishful thinking. Her mother had made her choice, and now they both had to live with it.

The only birthday present that remained, was the one from her father. She stared at the black box. What could he possibly have gotten her for her birthday?

Before she could reach for it and open it, the door flew open. Out of reflex Cora grabbed her wand. Pansy Parkinson ran into the room, closely followed by Tracey Davis and a reluctant Daphne Greengrass.

Cora lowered her wand as she watched the spectacle unfold in front of her.

"It's not FAIR!" Pansy cried out and threw herself on the bed.

"There there," Tracey said, and sat down on the bedside next to her. She stroked her friend awkwardly on the back, and gave Daphne, who was standing by the doorframe, a desperate look.

"I'm sorry Pansy. I don't know what I can do about it," Daphne said, and looked like she wanted to be anywhere else. To that Pansy gave a howl like a banshee.

"What's going on?" Cora asked, and looked bewildered from one girl to the other.

"Umm..." Tracey began.

"What's going on," Millicent Bullstrode pushed her way past Daphne and stood with arms crossed in front of Cora's bed. "is that Astoria stole Draco from Pansy."

"She did NOT!" Daphne retorted defensively. "It was decided by the Ministry."

"At your father's expense," Millicent snarled.

"You don't know that!" It was Daphne's turn to cross her arms, but it was plain to see that even she doubted her own sentiment. After all, Astoria wasn't turning 17 until next spring.

"He's the love of my life!" Pansy shouted and glared at Daphne. She pushed away Tracey's comforting hand and cried into her pillow again.

"Ok ok, let's all take a deep breath and talk this out." Cora gave each of them a firm look.

Within minutes the five ladies were sitting on the two beds - Daphne and Cora on hers and the other three on Pansy's. The next two hours were spent blaming, discussing, wallowing and snapping. By the end of it, Pansy left the room to find Draco, with Millicent and Tracey close behind, and Daphne remained on the bed with Cora. They were both exhausted.

"Happy birthday," Daphne smiled apologetically.

"Thanks." Cora chuckled. "Not quite how I imagined it." She leaned back against her pillows and stared up into the ceiling.

Daphne lay down next to her, and a relaxing silence fell over them. For the sake of her curiosity, Cora rummaged through her friend's mind. She'd gotten quite good at doing it unnoticed. The Ministry had indeed chosen Astoria to marry Draco, but only after a generous donation from her parents. Figures.

"I got Blaise." Daphne kept her eyes on the ceiling, but didn't sound disappointed.

"He's handsome." Cora threw her a sideward glance.

"Yeah." The redhead sounded almost dreamy.

"You'll have beautiful babies, Daph."

"Yeah..." she sighed. Her friend suddenly snapped out of her dreaminess, and shot her an embarrassed look. "Cora!"

"What? It's true!"

They both laughed.

Afraid of getting questions concerning her own husband, Cora squeezed her friend's hand. "I really loved the music box, by the way. It's beautiful."

"I'm glad." The blue eyes shone brightly back at her. "What else did you get?"

They both sat up in bed and Cora showed her the jewels and the velvet cloak. By the looks of Daphne's reaction, her presents were more than adequate. That made Cora happy. She'd always felt a little left out and below par, when it came to her fellow roommates. They'd always been more fortunate than her, and hadn't been the friendliest until her heritage was revealed. Two years later she still sometimes felt the need to prove herself to them. Even Daphne. Daphne hadn't been the worst, but her indifference to the snarky comments from the others, made it hard for Cora to trust her completely.

"You've missed one." Daphne picked up the black box and gave it to her. Cora reluctantly accepted and kept it in her hands, unsure of whether she should open it or not. As if sensing her predicament, Daphne said: "I can go if it's private."

"No no, you don't have to do that." Cora looked down on the box and fingered with it. "It's just -" She didn't quite have the words for it.

After drawing in a deep breath, she decided to open the last of her presents. The present from her father.

She half expected it to be a cursed object of some kind, but inside the box was nothing but a brown-leathered book.

After running her hand slowly over the smooth leather, both to buy herself some time and to feel for traces of dark magic, Cora opened the book.

To my precious Cora. So you'll always remember who you are and where you belong. Father

She could hear a small gasp coming from Daphne, but neither said anything.

With careful fingers she turned the page over, and found a beautiful family tree with her name at the bottom. It contained both the line of Slytherin and the house of Black.

After reading some more, it was evident that the book contained the history of her lineage, but also some family secrets. There were spells, potion recipes and runes that she had never seen before. Intrigued by the content Cora almost forgot that Daphne was there.

"Uhm.. I'll try to find Astoria."

"Sure." Cora nodded, and turned another page. This was not a bad gift at all. She hardly noticed when her friend left the room and closed the door behind her. Some of these spells were rather handy, and it didn't take long for her to realize that her father had actually invented several of them.

Cora was once again baffled by the man she called Father. He was terrifying and brilliant, polite and brutal, murderous... and yet he'd given her a birthday present she might actually enjoy. Being the curious school nerd that she was, she couldn't wait to test out some of the spells.

After sending several owls to thank her family, Cora celebrated her 17th birthday with her closest friends on top of the Astronomy Tower. They laughed, drank Fire Whiskey and decided to not talk about their future spouses. Tonight they were young and alive. Even Pansy seemed in a good mood, and had reconciled a bit with Draco.

They ended the night with sending up fireworks and dancing until the sun was slowly making its way up from the horizon.